34. The Bomb Site Was a Stage

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/dispatches/2013/04/boston_marathon_bomb_site_finish_line_is_a_stage_constructed_for_photographers.html

On Tuesday, April 16th, Jack Marmorstein wrote for Slate Magazine the article "The Bomb Site Was a Stage." The title of the article was undoubtedly the first attention grabbing factor due to its probable parody of Shakespeare's "All the AWorld's a Stage." Soon enough, the author started writing about his reminiscence of the time he was a runner of the Boston marathon himself of another previous race. He also contrasted it with how it looked "more like a stage than an athletic venue" and that "there's more scaffolding to hold a catwalk for photographers, ... and media than there is to actually mark the finish line itself." The second paragraph of the article continued describing the memory and the surrounding. From it, it was possible to know information about the exact location of the finish line, as well as where the photographers were from. The following paragraph justified why the finish site of the Boston Marathon could be considered "the most photographed spot on Earth at that moment." In addition, to add a touch of humor in the article, the author mentioned that the bombings were captured on camera "by dozens of other professional photographers, not to mention countless amateurs." Next, in the second to last paragraph, Marmorstein informed that despite the fact that no other information about the bombers was revealed at the time, it was likely that the criminals had planned to show on a stage, not on a crowded place; when he mentioned that the spectacle was "guaranteed to be captured thousands of times," he was referring to the many photographs, videos, and witnesses. As to support his previous argument, the author mentioned how all the soon to be published MarathonFoto images were evidence of capturing the spectacle "of every split second and every possible angle."

Marmorstein's purpose for writing this article was to describe as well as contrast the site of the Boylston Street with when the author ran the marathon and after the tragic double bombing event happened. His choice of words such as "scaffolding," "packed," "grandstand," "throngs," and other minor details such as photographers from "MarathonFoto" or "VIP seats" revealed his descriptive tone. The present verb tense used in the first two paragraphs did not only contribute to the overall unity of the article, but was also effective in a particular way. It caused the readers to go back in time and "experience" the site of the marathon before the bombing, hence the time when the author was running the marathon. Marmorstein's use of the personal pronoun "I" also made the writing seem more personal, yet more conversational and reader engaging. The author did not seem to have an opininon about the situation in general, but he did somewhat have an informative tone into it, as evident in the fourth paragraph, when he stated that nothing was yet known about the bombers. The final paragraph gave a very strong closing to the article, as it did not only summarize the fact that the bombing site was witnessed and captured by hundreds of photographers and spectators, but also justified his argument that the bombers chose a stage rather than a crowded place to show their spectacle, thus clarifying the article's title.